While fishing the little lehigh on friday with my dad and good friend i noticed a large sucker on the bank dried up and dead. I have noticed these things before, and fail to see reason in it. Im writing a report for school on preservation of nature and was wondering if i could get some opinions. It was in the fish hatchery area about 500m from the flyshop.

fishermen, usually "trout snobs" in their effort to "cherish" trout feel that any other fish in the creek are competing with and putting undue strain on the trouts ability to survive. This often brings them to throw trash fish on the bank.

When in fact its these trash fish tat supply an endless supply of forage through eggs and offspring.

Its one of them there conundrums.

Posted on: 2012/2/19 19:32

_________________Don't hit me with them negative waves so early in the morning. Think the bridge will be there and it will be there. It's a mother, beautiful bridge, and it's gonna be there. Ok?

Agree with the above. Trash fish (generally speaking fish from the Sucker and Minnow families) don't get a lot of love from trout anglers, or on this site, but they do serve a purpose and should be respected in their own right.

In my experience, almost without exception (I can't think of any as I type this anyway), small freestone streams that have either Chubs or Fallfish, or both, generally produce larger wild trout than do streams that are trout only. This may be in part because in extremely high gradient (and often acidic) headwater streams, Brookies are the only "catchable" size fish capable of inhabiting them, but in lower gradient, small freestoners where there's Chubs or Fallfish, there's bigger wild trout. Doesn't seem to be a coincidence IMO, and doesn't seem to matter if it's Brookies or Browns either.

I know they're not pretty to look at, but Fallfish are very aggressive and good fighters...good fun on a 4 or 5 wt, or UL spinning rod. The shame in what you saw nealfish was that whoever caught that sucker probably had a lot of fun fighting it until he/she saw what it was - assuming it was caught and thrown on the bank by an angler of course. Could always have died during higher flows and been left on the bank as the water receded too. But I'm sure that kind of stuff does go on unfortunately. You hear similar tales of sub-legal wild trout getting mishandled around opening day by guys looking to harvest stockies and thinking that the PFBC stocked "shorties."

I was on Spring last...well Spring and didn't hook a single fish in the typical locations; nor did anyone else that I talked to.

However, there were pods of suckers in the shallow riffles.So I just drifted egg patterns, or anything large and bright through the suckers and hooked a trout every other cast. Right there, out in the open. I guess food and sex are a greater motivator than safety.

Seriously, though... if I take my 13 year old out flyfishing I purposely get him on a pod of creek chubs. He loves the dry fly action they give. And suckers.... wow. I've had those suckers on Spring Creek fight me harder than any brown trout. Good times!!

The biggest fish on each of my last two trips to Penns were suckers! Pretty big dissapointment when that heavy thump on the other end of the line isn't a trout, but it still gets the adrenaline going. Biodiversity in a stream is good thing. You don't go hunting for deer and kill anything that isn't a deer because its a competitor.

I've taken several newbies fishing who had a tough time with the trout. But they were able to catch fall fish - and it prevented them from being totally frustrated. And still see what flyfishing is all about